UFC Fight Night 26's Chael Sonnen: 'I always like to look past a guy'

With less than a week to go before his UFC Fight Night 26 main event bout against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on FOX Sports 1, Chael Sonnen‘s chief concern is quite likely the Chael Sonneniest of all possible concerns.

“When I went to work at ‘UFC Tonight’ a couple weeks ago, I said, ‘Hey, what channel is FS1 going to be on,’ and they didn’t know,” Sonnen told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) in a recent phone interview. “They said it was a work in progress, and that was two weeks ago.”

You got that? His big worry is not the former UFC light heavyweight champ who’ll be aiming for his head on Saturday night at Boston’s TD Garden. No, his real worry is that you might not know which channel to find it on.

Fortunately, that part is taken care of now. When he went back for this past week’s filming of “UFC Tonight,” Sonnen said, he asked the producers the same question. This time they told him they had it all figured out, that the channel currently known as Speed will become FOX Sports 1.

“So anybody who has Speed, whatever channel that is, turn that thing on on Saturday night,” Sonnen boomed.

It’s stuff like this that gives you a pretty good idea why the UFC seems to like this guy so much. On paper, Sonnen is a 36-year-old middleweight-turned-occasional-light-heavyweight who’s lost two straight. And yet here he is, in another main event bout, this time leading the charge on the UFC’s new cable TV home in what he insists could be “the most-watched fight of all time.”

“And that’s boxing, MMA, anything,” Sonnen said. “We will be in just over 90 million homes.”

Of course, that’s not so different from Spike TV’s reach. It’s also considerably less than ESPN’s. But when you say it like that – 90 million homes! – it sounds so much more impressive.

That’s what Sonnen does well. Or at least, it’s one of the things he does well, and he does it well enough to make him worth the extra baggage he brings to the job.

For instance, there was this past week’s fiasco regarding his licensing after activist groups such as Unite Here filed complaints with the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission citing Sonnen’s 2011 conviction on federal money laundering charges as proof of his “moral turpitude.” In addition, the National Organization for Women also filed a complaint accusing Sonnen of using sexist and homophobic language.

Both groups, possibly more for political reasons than sincere ideological ones, argued that he should not be given a license to fight in Boston. Both groups were then likely disappointed when the MSAC cleared Sonnen to fight, and also cleared his use of testosterone-replacement therapy.

For most fighters, that’s a distraction they don’t need in the weeks leading up to a bout. And for most promoters, a fighter with that sort of traveling bullseye on his back might be more trouble than he’s worth. But Sonnen isn’t most fighters, in part for his ability to grab headlines with his pro-wrestling schtick while also shrugging off the real world problems that sometimes accompany it.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about it,” Sonnen said of the licensing trouble. “… I called into the commission meeting. I found out at the 11th hour and called in, and I just kind of said, ‘Hey, I’m available if there are any questions.’ There were none. I didn’t get asked anything, and I hung up the phone. I was on the phone with them for a little less than one minute.”

So you see? No big deal. Just some activist groups alleging that Sonnen is such a bad person he shouldn’t be allowed to work as a professional cage fighter in the great state of Massachusetts. Hardly worth mentioning, in Sonnen’s world. The 90 million homes that FOX Sports 1 will be in on Saturday night, however? That’s front-page stuff. Tell your family and friends to flip on that Speed channel, whichever one it is.

As a pitchman, it’s this ability to control the narrative, emphasizing his points and downplaying conflicting ones, that makes him so effective. It might also be what helps him continually land marquee fights, even as his career inside the cage seems locked in a sort of holding pattern.

Win or lose against Mauricio Rua (21-7 MMA, 5-5 UFC) in their five-rounder, Sonnen (27-13-1 MMA, 6-6 UFC) has said, his next fight may very well take place back at middleweight. For anyone else, that might make this light heavyweight title pretty meaningless. It’s not for a title or even to determine who’ll get the next crack at one. It’s two fighters coming off losses, one of whom does not even plan to remain in the division, and yet it’s must-see TV because Sonnen says it is. Same with the next one and the next one after that, all of which Sonnen seems to be setting up for himself even before this one is over and done with.

“I always like to look past a guy,” Sonnen explained. “It’s a good way to not have to spend too much time thinking about the same guy, where you worry and grow stale.”

But when he looks past Rua – and I mean way past – what does he see? Another run at the UFC middleweight title? A career in TV? Maybe it’s a little bit of everything. Sonnen’s always been the fighter who insisted, contrary to the claims of his peers, that this isn’t a full-time job. He only spends about three hours a day in the gym, he said, “and that includes warm-up and shower.”

Besides, if he weren’t the guy who could do it all, maybe he wouldn’t keep getting one main event spot after another, even when he loses. Maybe he wouldn’t be the guy with the bullseye on his back and the UFC’s high hopes for a successful FOX Sports 1 debut on his shoulders. He certainly wouldn’t be the one who, a week before his fight, gets some face-to-face time with FOX producers in the studio. And then how would he quiz them on the details of the upcoming broadcast? How would he know what channel to find himself on?

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